1. Technical Field
The field of art to which this invention pertains may be generally located in the class of devices relating to solenoid actuators. Class 335, Electricity, Magnetically Operated Switches, Magnets and Electromagnets, United States Patent Office Classification, appears to be the applicable general area of art to which the subject matter similar to this invention has been classified in the past.
2. Background Information
DC solenoid or electromagnetic actuators are used for actuating various apparatuses such as switches, valves and the like. A problem encountered in the operation of a DC solenoid actuator is one of repeatability of substantially the same energized response time of a solenoid actuator. Heretofore, the energized response time for a DC solenoid actuator could not be made consistent or repeatable, from one time compared to the next time, within a close tolerance. For example, if it took three milliseconds to respond to an energizing signal for one actuating movement of the armature of a DC solenoid actuator, it would take four or five milliseconds to respond to the next energizing signal. However, in some instances it is desirable to have a DC solenoid actuator respond to an energizing signal within a tolerance of plus or minus 0.3 milliseconds, while in other operations the solenoid actuator must respond with a repeatability of within 0.1 milliseconds in order to provide proper operation of the apparatus which the solenoid actuator is actuating. It is an object of the present invention to overcome the problem of response repeatability in the operation of a DC solenoid actuator, so as to provide a response repeatability with a minimum variation, as for example, plus or minus 0.1 millisecond.